My flight from Amsterdam landed around 5pm and I got home around seven. Flights always gave me head aches, I think because of the dry air. But a head ache was the last thing I needed last night, as I had ten or so friends coming to my place to follow the Apocalypse. Slowly the first results started dripping in; McCain leads Indiana, Obama takes Virginia and North-Carolina, Florida goes neck-to-neck.

But at 11pm the word was out. The second name of the 44th President of the USA is Hoessein. Everybody had been nervous during the day and it was a great relief to reach the point of no return. His speech was fantastic and historic. Then we started a bet when the first killing attempt on his life would take place. I think he is running a great risk and we can only hope that he has sufficient security. Another issue is the Obama craze that is going on. It is just a matter of time for people to get disappointed as nobody can live up to these expectations. And he is also facing decisions that will make people unhappy either way.
The choice for Obama has really surprised me. I never thought a black guy would get elected, especially with such convincing numbers. The US deserves credit for its ability to change so dramatically. I can only enjoy being here at these historic times.

_{Credits for the picture goes to http://freemanpress.wordpress.com/}

Last week I spent three days in beautiful Colrain, a small village in Western Massachusetts. A professor from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has been hosting a small meeting at his farm in Colrain for the last 21 years.

(Some pictures of this great location here). It is a special meeting since it is only accessible to (former) postdocs and grad students of this and three other professors (including the infamous Bob Weinberg), called the F1, and their ‘offspring’ - postdocs of former postdocs, known as F2. I am F2, my advisor is F1. So it small scale, with a number of great scientists, very informal, very direct - and I had to present my work. Now in science that is pretty normal, I present regularly at work meetings with my direct colleagues. But this meeting made me a bit nervous because of the impressive audience, albeit a small audience. Like how I was nervous before defending my thesis.
The presentation went fine, though, I got some interesting suggestions and talked with many different people. I used to crap my pants for presentations, sleepless nights as an undergrad student, but it has become such a routine now that I do not care too much anymore. The next presentation that is coming up is in December at a TCGA meeting in Bethesda and I actually look forward to it - my first real opportunity to present for the TCGA community!

This weekend we celebrated that there are only 100 days left under the Bush/Cheney presidency. And considering the situation the national economy we are in, that is a good thing. The upcoming elections are the talk of the town and it is pretty cool to be in the middle of it. Although me and most of my friends are not eligible (yet!) to vote, we also discuss the topic frequently. That said I have yet to come across the first McCain voter.

The last few weeks have been taken away by McCain’s surprising choice of vice-president, which is currently dragging him under. Sarah Palin is as big a joke as Dan Quale was as veep for the Bush senior administration. She got her first passport less than two years ago. I probably have more international experience than her. And she could be just a heartbeat away from being the most important person on this planet. Fortunately the American public seems to realize this, shown by McCain lagging behind in most polls. Whether Obama will make it remains unsure. This has two reason. First, it is the first time the US has a serious black contender. Second, there is a group of people who worship Obama as the new Messiah. Both aspects may put off a group of voters who are afraid to admit in public that they will not vote for the Democrat candidate.
Nor this, nor the big financial debacle is likely to have a big effect on me personally. The biggest consequence is the drop of value of the Euro versus the dollar, but I am convinced that that will be reversed soon enough. I would never vote for Obama who is far too liberal for my liking. I endorse the Dutch Animal Rights Party and until that exists in the US I could not care less who wins.

Night life in the state of Massachusetts ends at 2am in the morning. All the bars have to be empty by that time. This is quite disappointing if you are used to night life in the Netherlands, where some bars are open until 6am in the morning. As a result my friends and I try to go to parties rather then bars. I live close to the Harvard as well as the MIT campus and there are many students, PhD students and postdocs living in the area. Most of these share a house with 2 or 3 roommates. It is these type of houses where the best parties can be found.

All these parties are BYOB - Bring Your Own Beer - and typically the hosts are not very selective in who is invited but want to have a good crowd going. The trick is to know at least one invited person in each party and then you are good to go.
If only life was that simple. These house parties are often in one apartment in a building, or one floor in a house. Usually there are neighbours close by. And what do you do when you hear noise in the apartment next door? You call the police. I think out of the ten parties I have been to in the last couple of months, nine were shut down by police.
Last week it was my turn to host a party, a celebration of my new apartment and my birthday the 29th of September. I think about 40 to 50 people came, we had lots of fun, there was music in my living room and people were even dancing. But as you can guess, around 1am we were visited by two friendly police officers. I got lucky, since their only request was to shut down the music. My guests could stay as much as they wanted and the last people left about 03:30 in the morning. It took two days to get rid of both the hangover and the mess but I am glad I could do something in return to the Cambridge party community. We move on to two more parties this weekend.

September 4 2008, a day to remember if you are a scientist working in the Broad Institute and TCGA. It started this morning with a celebration of the fourth birthday of the Broad. Rumors had been floating around for a few weeks about big announcements that were going to be made. We would become a separate institute. We would get a third building. We would receive another huge gift from the financial founders of the institute, Eli and Edythe Broad.

Picture taken with my crappy phone cam. From left to right, Eli Broad, Eric Lander (director of Broad Institute), Edythe Broad, Deval Patrick (Massachusetts governor), David Baltimore (Nobel Prize 1975), Susan Hockfield (President of MIT) and Drew Faust (President of Harvard).

The celebration began around 930 this morning, with all ‘Broadies’ nervously awaiting in the lobby. A video was shown with employees and famous people (Steve Jobs, Bill Clinton, John Kerry) talking about how great we are. Next were some short speeches starting with the director of the Institute Eric Lander, great guy bursting of energy. Then the speech that will make it into the media, Eli Broad announcing a gift of 400 million dollar ‘to ensure the permanent existence of the Institute’. 400 MILLION. That’s a lot of money. To all my corporate friends (especially those in Manhattan): read the press release. Once you have that amount of money and wish to give it away, call me, we’ll make a fine institute with your name on it.
Of course the roof went off when he announced his gift, and we had drinks and reception during the rest of the day (and did some work in between). Also present: Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts and Barack Obama’s big buddy (they wanted Bill Clinton, but he was busy), and the presidents of both Harvard and MIT.

I am not easily impressed, but it was awesome to be here today. It seems pretty historic. The Broad Institute is also going to continue as a separate body, meaning without formal connection to MIT and Harvard. All this underlines that my decision to stay at Broad as long as possible (and not move to Singapore, for instance) feels very right. The best remark of the day was made in the introductory video: “If it ain’t impossible, we are not really that interested.” Broadacious!

I would almost forget to mention that the TCGA Consortium paper was published in Nature today. I am looking forward to the ‘dear Nature author’ letter that comes with it!

What an exciting week this turns out to be. Science as a never-ending roller coaster ride. Only a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was not very busy at that moment. But this week, on Monday, my collaborators and I found out that we have some serious competition on the subject we are preparing a manuscript on. Leading us to set ourselves on a serious deadline for next Thursday.

Fortunately I I moved yesterday and I can focus on finishing this manuscript now.
My new apartment is a blast and I think I will have a great time there. The previous tenants were a couple from Germany, and I think it is big enough to live there with two people comfortably. Perhaps it is time for me to also find that other person. I have certainly enjoyed the pleasures of bachelor life until now, but slowly I start feeling the need to settle down a little bit. (Of course writing these things here is a big risk since previous and future lovers are likely to read these lines too. But I figure that honesty and sincerity are important, so I’d write them here anyway.) I do not really know why I feel that need to settle down but the fact that I see people around me having babies, getting married, having real jobs certainly does not help. Fortunately I have many bachelor friends to drag me along for obscene parties and binge drinking nights too

Given the variety of people here, there is also a variety of beliefs. Jews from Israel, Hindu’s from India, Muslims from Turkey and Iran, Budhists from China, Christians from the US. Most remarkable to me is the number of Jewish people. Growing up in a rural area in the Netherlands I did not come across Jews until I moved to Rotterdam at age 27 and even in Rotterdam there are very few.

The great thing about meeting with all religions is that it creates a common understanding. Myself, being a scientist, I believe in science. When I die there will be nothing and no, there is nothing more then what we see and feel. I respect other peoples religions and expect them to respect my atheism. Many scientists in the US are religious. I have a hard time understanding how believing in a God (or multiple Gods ) does not interfere with your work, especially in medical biology. One of the best known examples of a religious scientist is Francis Collins, a very respectable scientist with whom I have had the honor to work in the TCGA project. He clearly shows that combining science and religion is entirely possible (NB he recently resigned as head of NHCRI for personal reasons).
Working in science has the side effect of making you cynical. This is due to the fact that many studies are controversial and even dogma’s can be taken down in a matter of months (such as the various estimations of how many genes there are in the human genome). In other words: it is typically not easy to see what the ‘truth’ is.
Sometimes I’d like to be a little less cynical and to be able to believe in something. Atheism comes with a great deal of responsibility. But that is too much of a prize to pay for the liberty gained by it, I guess.

The slow season has started. Even though America does not have as much holidays as the old Continent, there is definitely a holiday season. I believe the employees of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, my current employer, have 23 holidays per annum - rather a lot for the area. My corporate friends often have ten or fifteen. With my visits to Singapore and West-Papua earlier this year, and my visit to Singapore and Europe early July, I have had enough time off for now.

Of course, since I have a KWF Fellowship, I could theoretically take as much holidays as I like. And I really should take some time of to do sight seeing within the United States or plan a trip to the Caribbean, which is relatively close by. Maybe in the fall, when the weather gets colder here.
Work is also slow for a second reason. My main project has entered the final phase, we are writing a manuscript and currently there is not too much that can be done for it. Perhaps my planning has not been very effective, and there are some days that I wonder what to do. We have follow up projects in mind, but to start these I am dependent on my supervisor. Who is enjoying a holiday in France, I think. So what can you do? Take it easy for a while. Enjoy the season. Prepare for my move in a few weeks. Buy a car. Tough life!

Although the weather has been pretty shitty the last weeks, this summer is turning out to be a good one. Importantly, I completed my drivers license by passing the driving test on Friday. The test was simple and took no more then 15 minutes. In which I had to do some three point turns and parallel parking, but I never saw any serious traffic or highways.

My license will allow me to explore more then the few square miles around Central Square, that make up my current habitat.
Hence, this summer will be known as the summer I received a drivers license for the second time. The summer shall also be known as the summer of the different nationalities. Last Sunday, like most Sundays, I played football with Spaniards, Argentineans and French. On that same day I went to the beach with a Iranian friend. Later that week, I attended the Boston French party where I ran into an Austrian friend. She invited me to her house warming party on Friday. I went to that party with a friend from Switzerland and talked with people from Germany, Spain and Croatia (amongst others). On Saturday I took the bus to greatest melting pot of them all - New York. In the evening we shared dinner with people from the States, Spain and Ireland. And yesterday I spend a great day on a 50 feet sailing boat with people from Colombia, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the US.
And this was just last week. The most remarkable thing about meeting all these nationalities is that on a deeper level, it does not matter where you come from. You can have fun with anyone regardless there cultural background. World peace, please!